Reflection 3.1

After going back and forth on a bunch of topics to write my argument on I think I decided on the best one. Lowering the drinking age is a very popular topic that has a lot of resources to choose from. I was able to find exactly what I was looking for to help me get my points across. I am not sure how strongly my argument came of as being Rogerian style. I found it a little difficult to have that soft, compromising tone to my essay. This is partly because I am naturally an aggressive writer.

Rogerian Arguement: Rough Draft

Let’s Lower It: An Argument on Lowering the Drinking Age

The drinking age is a concern that affects many American citizens starting from teens up to adults. It is a topic that can perk up many ears and that many people have a say in. It is not fair that an 18 year old can risk their lives serving in the military, vote for the next president, purchase weapons, buy cigarettes, and legally be called an adult without having the freedom of an occasional beer. I realize the concern that Americans have with lowering the drinking age, but I feel that as you read on by our own means I believe that your views will change. With that said, I feel that the drinking age should be lowered from 21 to 18 and here’s why.

To start off I fully understand that the drinking age was raised from 21 to 18 in the mid 1980’s to reduce fatal car crashes. But this has not at all stopped underage drinking. In fact it has made it worse. The article “Why Drinking Age Should Be Lowered: An Opinion based on facts.” written by Professor Ruth C. Engs at Indiana University presents logical and statistical information on the topic. Engs states, “The decrease in drinking and driving problems are the result of many factors and not just the rise in purchase age or the decreased per capita consumption. These include: education concerning drunk driving, designated driver programs, increased seat belt and air bag usage, safer automobiles, lower speed limits, free taxi services from drinking establishments, etc” (Engs par. 7) With the increase in age for alcohol purchase and consumption legality brings other problems. These problems include those brought on by irresponsible heavy drinking by college age students. Statistically from “1982 until 1987 about 46% of students reported "vomiting after drinking." This jumped to over 50% after the law change. Significant increase were also found for other variables: "cutting class after drinking" jumped from 9% to almost 12%; "missing class because of hangover" went from 26% to 28%; "getting lower grade because of drinking" rose from 5% to 7%; and "been in a fight after drinking" increased from 12% to 17%” (Engs par. 6). It is clear that fatal car crashes caused by intoxicated minors may not just be because of the increase in drinking age. On top of this an abundance of strong facts and percentages proves that the rise in drinking has only increased problems before sought to be eliminated.

A discussion of this argument was presented on 60 Minutes by CBS News. The dilemma was brought up by former president of Middlebury College in Vermont, John McCardell  with the help of Mark Beckner, the chief of police in Boulder, Colorado. Beckner states, "This law has been an abysmal failure," McCardell told 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl. "It hasn't reduced or eliminated drinking. It has simply driven it underground, behind closed doors, into the most risky and least manageable of settings. Like basements, fraternity houses and locked dorm rooms, where kids go to hide from the law and from adults, including parents, who might teach them some moderation” (CBS par. 7). It is sad to see what the drinking community has come to. Maybe if the drinking age is lowered better results will come for America’s college students and teens that chose to participate in casual drinking.

Without the ease of acquiring alcohol, young adults feel the need to buy expensive fake IDs. With possession of these IDs these have possibly innocent, young adults have the potential of getting felony charges. “The overall advantage is we're not trying to enforce a law that's unenforceable. The abuse of alcohol and the over-consumption of alcohol and DUI driving. Those are the areas we've gotta focus our efforts. Not on chasing kids around trying to give 'em a ticket for having a cup of beer in their hand” (CBS par. 19). Teens and College students feel the need to get as drunk as possible before going out on weekends. “The law has created a dangerous culture of irresponsible and reckless behavior, unsupervised binge and extreme drinking… kids trying to perfect the art of getting drunk as fast as possible by playing drinking games. And pre-loading, downing as much of the forbidden fruit as possible before going out in order to avoid getting caught by the police” (CBS par. 8) To me this just seems backwards. I realize that the police force and laws are set up to avoid reckless behavior and potentially dangerous events from occurring. But in fact opposite is happening because of such strict laws against minors drinking.

Many teens and young adults have the desire to rebel against the law. Drinking illegally seems cool to them and can actually push them more to binge drink. It is true that drinking at younger age does have its downside, such as decline in athletic performance, academics, health, and overall wellbeing. With this said if these youngsters are not able to drink in controlled environments they will have to learn for themselves. How will they be able to manage these downsides if they are not comfortably drinking around better role models? I am sure most everyone from adults to teens can attest to that one time the just drank way too much. Some of these people may even have stories of trips to the emergency room. The lack of adult authority over binge drinking can only be a negative. If these young adults and teens were able to drink in bars and around and school functioned events, bartenders and other adults would be able to cut them off so they learn moderation. They would also not have to feel the need to drink in underground, unsupervised environments where they may act in both irresponsible and life-threatening behaviors. To add on to this, many underage drinkers drive intoxicated in order to hide it from their parents. If the drinking age were lowered these minors would feel less pressure in telling their parents that they are drunk, and have a better chance of getting a safe ride home.

“The legal drinking age should be lowered to about 18 or 19 and young adults allowed to drink in controlled environments such as restaurants, taverns, pubs and official school and university functions. In these situations responsible drinking could be taught through role modeling and educational programs” (Engs par. 1). Similar attempts to alter drinking laws have historically failed. This was seen in the 1920’s with the national prohibition and the 1850’s with state prohibition. Underground drinking had become a huge ordeal causing otherwise innocent citizens to be arrested for having a casual drink. Crime had increased in these times and they had to be appealed because of it. I feel a similar situation is being presented in this argument. By lowering the drinking age such illegal, underground drinking will be brought to a minimum, and young adults and teens will learn to drink in a reasonable moderation.

The United States is one of the only developed countries who have a drinking age higher than the age of 18. Countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia all have drinking ages at 18 or lower. Michaela Ails who wrote an article in The Daily Collegian has a say on this, “Even our neighbors to the north, Canada, have a drinking age of 18 proving that this is not a regional phenomenon (Ails  par. 1). As mentioned before I understand that the drinking age was raised in order to lower automobile fatalities and that American driving standards are much different than those of other countries.
                To conclude I hope all readers now have a better sense of where I am coming from in my discussion of lowering the drinking age to the age of 18. I do hope all well better consider the idea and with much optimism will make it a reality. Thank you, your time is very valuable to me in getting this message across.

Works Cited:

“The Debate On Lowering The drinking Age”. CBS News. Feb. 22, 2009. March 28, 2011.

Engs, Ruth C. “Why Drinking Age Should Be Lowered: An Opinion based on facts.”Applied Health Sciences, Indiana University. March, 20, 1998. March 29, 2011.

Ails, Michaela. “Lowering Drinking Age to 18 Would Benefit Young Adults”. The Daily Collegian. Feb. 2, 2009. March 30, 2011.

Reflection 2.2

After reading over my first draft and getting feedback I decided to take a somewhat different approach to my paper. I completely took out a couple paragraphs and added new ones. I took out these paragraphs because they were about my own personal views and I could not fully support their claims. Even though I think they did a good job getting my point across, I just could not get proper evidence. Instead I talked about a scholarly article that was very easy to back up. Although, the article was extremely difficult to find; in the end it was very useful.

Prewriting Essay 3

I am interested in writing my essay on some time of issue that involves college students, preferably athletes. being an athlete myself, this is always a topic that interests me and I may have some personal thoughts on the issue.

Essay 2.2: The Tiger Mother's Predator

Dan Sheldon

Professor Henderson

Academic Writing 1

March, 20, 2011

The Tiger Mother’s Predator

The article “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” by Amy Chua, featured in the Wall Street Journal on January 8, 2011, is a controversial piece that may have readers both outraged and intrigued. Chua explains her view on how her parenting style is more effective than any other style used by different parents. Even though her children seem to be excelling in school, her abusiveness and lack of freedom render her ways questionable.  

The idea that Chinese Mothers are Superior is one that is lacking full support. Although statistically Chinese students do have a high success rate, when do the parents stop and ask what their children feel about the whole ordeal? What other hobbies or interests do they wish to follow that the parents are not assigning them? How can you measure the parenting style and success rate of all "Chinese Mothers? Can you take into account the success rate/ happiness of the children of "western parents" when compared to those of "Chinese mothers"? As mentioned in Chua’s editorial, "In one study of 50 Western American mothers and 48 Chinese immigrant mothers, almost 70% of the Western mothers said that stressing academic success is not good for the children, by contrast roughly 0% of the Chinese mothers felt the same way” (Chua par. 2) It is clear that Chinese parents have a very different view than that of the so-called “Western parents”.  For Chinese mothers getting straight A's is not something to strive for it is simply how it must be. This is compared to a common Western parent praising their child for getting a B on a paper. There is nothing wrong with wanting your children to get A’s. I feel that “Chinese Mothers” have the right incentive by pushing their kids to have high academic achievements. But to the excess of that which has been described in this article, I feel is wrong.  I think it is to a point of abusiveness and their children will unfortunately not be able to experience all life has to offer. They may develop social problems because of it.

A study was conducted by Xinyin Chen of the University of Western Canada, and Qi Dong and Hong Zhou of Beijing Normal University. Their article was featured in the International Journal of Behavioral Development, copyright 1997. The study was done to show social abilities amongst peers due in contrast to both authoritarian and authoritative style parenting. The study was done by having teacher measure school related social competence and problems for each child. The child-rearing practices were provided by the parents of the children. Along with this the children’s academic records were provided by the school. “It was found that authoritarian parenting was associated positively with aggression and negatively with peer acceptance, sociability-competence, distinguished studentship and school academic achievement. In contrast, parental authoritative style was associated positively with indices of social and school adjustment and negatively with adjustment problems” (Xinyin). Social competence plays a big role in most work settings. If these participants are not able to function properly with other students, how will they be able to work effectively with others in future occupations? Book smarts can only take you so far.

If the children are not able to experience social settings and extracurricular activities in their childhood, other than violin, I believe they will grow up to be dull, socially awkward individuals. In the article “Our Readers Roar: What Makes a Good Parent”, Alistair Nichols brings up a point similar to mine. They state “All that rote learning and drilling isn't conducive to developing creative thinking abilities; and avoidance of sleepovers, school plays, sports, etc. doesn't make them very team-oriented—a real drawback in the modern world.… I think there has to be a middle way. Unfortunately, this article doesn't promote a balanced approach” (Our Readers Roar par. 2). Not permitting your children to participate in such social settings cannot possibly be the best way to go about, especially when looking at the long run effect.

Although as mentioned in the article, “what Chinese parents understand is that nothing is fun until you are good at it…. Once a child starts to excel at something…. She gets praise, admiration, and satisfaction. This builds confidence and makes the once not fun activity fun” (Chua par.5). Maybe the child has a desire to partake in something that they may be truly good at and thoroughly enjoy. Well if the parents do not allow them to participate in this, how will they ever know? They may be missing out on something that could make them successful and happy in years to come.  Maybe the child has superior hand-eye-coordination and may excel in a sport like baseball. By not allowing this child to experience the sport they will never know his true potential. They will also have no understanding of what it is like to compete on a team and work as a group to complete a goal. They will miss out on the experience of building a strong friend base in which they will learn the feats of a social setting. I personally have gained the strongest friendships through sports and have learned what it means to work towards one goal as a team. If I did not experience this I would not be the same person nor have the same moral values. Unfortunately the children who are not allowed to participate in such activities will never gain the understanding of these powerful experiences.

According to “Essentials of Life-Span Development” by John W. SantRock, copyright 2008, “Authoritarian parents are restrictive, punitive parents who exhort the child to follow their directions and respect their work and effort. The authoritarian parent places firm limits and controls on the child and allows little verbal exchange” (Santrock 175). This style strongly matches that of the “Chinese Mother”. It further explains that the children are “often unhappy, fearful, and anxious about themselves with others; they also fail to initiate activity, and have weak communication skills” (Santrock 175). The children of the parents will seemingly have weak communication skills and overall not be happy. Are straight A’s really worth the lack of your child’s happiness and overall well-being? I would like to think not, but everyone has their own opinion as well as view on the subject.

To conclude, the statement of Chinese Mothers being superior is not one that can be backed up to the point of no argument. Chua may think that her methods are perfect, but many beg to differ. Overall parents with the authoritarian style parenting should really take another look at how their children are physiologically developing; changes may need to be made.

Works Cited:

Santrock, John W., Essentials of Life-Span Development, 1221 Avenue of the Americans, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2008, United States

Chua, Amy, “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior”, 2011, The Wall Street journal, February, 2, 2011

“Our Readers Roar: What Makes A Good Parent”, 2011, The Wall Street Journal , February 28, 2011

Chen, Xinyin, Dong, Qi, Zhou, Hong. “Authoritative and Authoritarian Parenting Practices and Social and School Performance in Chinese Children”. International Journal of Behavioral Development November 1997 vol. 21 no. 4 855-873. http://jbd.sagepub.com/content/21/4/855.short. 3/19/2011.

Reflection 2.1

I found the research process easier than I thought it would be at the start. I thought that finding my own sources was going to be a big hassle. But, the fact that other arguing articles were linked right on the web page of the original article it made finding other sources and point of views quite simple. Also I had taken a psychology course in the fall and had plentiful information on effecting parenting styles. I also had the textbook we used readily accessible.

Essay 2.1: the tiger mother's predator

The Tiger Mother’s predator

The article “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” by Amy Chua is a controversial piece that may have readers both outraged and intrigued. Chua explains her view on how her parenting style is more effective than any other style used by different parents. Even though her children seem to be excelling in school, her abusiveness and lack of freedom render her ways questionable.  

The idea that Chinese Mothers are Superior is one that is lacking full support. Although Statistically Chinese students do have a high success rate, when do the parents stop and ask what their children feel about the whole ordeal? What other hobbies or interests do they wish to follow that the parents are not assigning them? How can you measure the parenting style and success rate of all "Chinese Mothers? Can you take into account the success rate/ happiness of the children of "western parents" when compared to those of "Chinese mothers"? "In one study of 50 Western American mothers and 48 Chinese immigrant mothers, almost 70% of the Western mothers said that stressing academic success is not good for the children, by contrast roughly 0% of the Chinese mothers felt the same way." It is clear that Chinese parents have a very different view than that of the so-called “Western parents”.  For Chinese mothers getting straight A's is not something to strive for it is simply how it must be. This is compared to a common Western parent praising their child for getting a B on a paper.

While on the topic of parenting styles I would like to share my personal views on the subject. My parents were always very open to allow me to follow whatever academic and extracurricular paths I so wished. Over my 18, nearly 19 years of existence I have experienced many different venues of hobbies. My parents only directed me towards paths I may be interested in; they did not by any means dictate my life. I feel this made me a very diverse and creative person. I can say the same for both my brother and sister. None of the three of us followed the same paths. My sister became an accounting major, my brother a business major, and myself a health and physical education major. Both my brother and I play on the football team as well. We are all very successful in school and seem to be living our lives as happily and freely as we possibly can.

The only thing I can say on a personal note after reading this article is that I wish my parents had pushed me a little more to achieve higher grades. It is not that they didn’t care it is just a matter of them saying “try your best and you’ll get what you get”. Well for someone who does not have as high of an interest in academics as opposed to extracurricular activities such as sports, I did not strive for the best in the classroom. An average 3.0 was just fine for me. And as long as this got me into a good college, my parents were happy too. I feel that “Chinese Mothers” have the right incentive by pushing their kids to have high academic achievements. But to the excess of that which has been described in this article, I feel is wrong. I think it is to a point of abusiveness and their children will unfortunately not be able to experience all life has to offer.

If the children are not able to experience social settings and extracurricular activities in their childhood, other than violin, I believe they will grow up to be dull, socially awkward individuals. In the article “Our Readers Roar: What Makes a Good Parent”, Alistair Nichols brings up a point similar to mine. They state “All that rote learning and drilling isn't conducive to developing creative thinking abilities; and avoidance of sleepovers, school plays, sports, etc. doesn't make them very team-oriented—a real drawback in the modern world.… I think there has to be a middle way. Unfortunately, this article doesn't promote a balanced approach” (Our Readers Roar par. 2).

Although as mentioned in the article, “what Chinese parents understand is that nothing is fun until you are good at it…. Once a child starts to excel at something…. She gets praise, admiration, and satisfaction. This builds confidence and makes the once not fun activity fun” (Chua par.5). Maybe the child has a desire to partake in something that they may be truly good at and thoroughly enjoy. Well if the parents do not allow them to participate in this, how will they ever know? They may be missing out on something that could make them successful and happy in years to come.  Maybe the child has superior hand-eye-coordination and may excel in a sport like baseball. By not allowing this kid to experience the sport they will never know his true potential. They will also have no understanding of what it is like to compete on a team and work as a group to complete a goal. They will miss out on the experience of building a strong friend base in which they will learn the feats of a social setting. I personally have gained the strongest friendships through sports and have learned what it means to work towards one goal as a team. If I did not experience this I would not be the same person nor have the same moral values. Unfortunately the children who are not allowed to participate in such activities will never gain the understanding of these powerful experiences.

According to “Essentials of Life-Span Development” by John W. SantRock, copyright 2008, “Authoritarian parents are restrictive, punitive parents who exhort the child to follow their directions and respect their work and effort. The authoritarian parent places firm limits and controls on the child and allows little verbal exchange” (Santrock 175). This style strongly matches that of the “Chinese Mother”. It further explains that the children are “often unhappy, fearful, and anxious about themselves with others; they also fail to initiate activity, and have weak communication skills” (Santrock 175). The children of the parents will seemingly have weak communication skills and overall not be happy. Are Straight A’s really worth the lack of your child’s happiness and overall wellbeing? I would like to think not, but everyone has their own opinion as well as view on the subject.

To conclude the statement of Chinese Mothers being superior is not one that can be backed up to the point of no argument. She may think that her methods are perfect, but many beg to differ.

Works Cited

Santrock, John W., Essentials of Life-Span Development, 1221 Avenue of the Americans, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2008, United States

Chua, Amy, “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior”, 2011, The Wall Street journal, February, 2, 2011

“Our Readers Roar: What Makes A Good Parent”, 2011, The Wall Street Journal , February 28, 2011